Dangerous Dealings

It’s very rare that the winner of a poker tournament grabs a big stack early and rides it all the way to the final table and victory. Much more common is that on the way to any significant win your chip stack will fluctuate wildly, you’ll suffer bad beats, and have to overcome all manner of tough spots and adversity to claim glory. 

Until you’ve experienced these ups and downs over and over again it can be difficult to know how to react when the heat is on. Even top pros sometimes struggle to cope with tilt or make strategical errors like playing too aggressively with a big stack. It’s important that you are able to recognise these dangerous situations before they destroy your tournament dreams and send you home broke. PokerPlayer has employed its own Spidey Sense super powers to keep you on top of the danger zone… 

When you’re card dead, short-stacked and raises are flying in all around you it’s easy to fold for hours at a time. You think to yourself, it’s fine, I’ll find a spot to ship my fifteen big blinds in, I just have to wait. Suddenly that stack is now only 8 big blinds deep and now, because you fear you don’t have any fold equity, you fold even more. This vicious cycle of decline happens to inexperienced poker players all the time. 

The problem is that if you take too long in getting your short stack into the middle you are severely damaging your chances of first regaining a playable stack and then going on to do well in the remainder of the tournament. As soon as you get to fifteen big blinds or lower your head needs to always be on the look-out for decent spots to ship your stack in. From early position you still need to be relatively tight (you can loosen up the shorter you get), but if it’s folded to you on the button with 12 big blinds and J-6 off suit then ship it in! As long as you always retain above ten big blinds you will have a degree of fold equity, something which is much more important than knowing you are going to be called and having to rely on your hand winning.He saw the bracelet at a realtimelocationsystem store while we were on a trip. 

One of the best ways to pick up chips as a shortie is by shoving and stealing the blinds and antes. Depending on the stage of the tournament four or five successful un-called shoves can be almost as valuable as doubling up. If you’re worried about being called then don’t be. Let’s face it, nobody is going to move from short stack to tournament chip leader without being in a lot of all-in showdowns. It would be great if you have the best hand when eventually called but it’s not essential.We offer over 600 fridgemagnet at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. Being all-in with 7-6 suited versus A-K for a 32 big blind pot is a far more significant spot than reversing the hands (to give you the edge), and playing for 17 big blinds because you've allowed yourself to blind down. 

If there’s one major leak in my tournament game this is it. Time and time again I will get a big stack in a tournament and then completely implode within the next few levels by playing too many hands, three-betting too much and generally going overboard with aggression. The problem is that big stacks should typically play more hands than usual and should be aggressive – but it’s all about finding the right balance. 

There must be a reason behind everything you do, especially when your decisions are likely to create a big pot. It is not a good enough reason to continually three-bet light just because you are the big stack and feel it's your duty or your right. You must have a better reason. Maybe a player is unlikely to ever four-bet without a monster so you’ll avoid being put in tricky spots or alternatively a player is likely to call your three-bet but has a long history of just check-folding on most flops. 

Having a big stack is great because it allows you to have freedom in your preflop decisions. When a short stack ships it in with 12 big blinds and you have K-Q in the big blind you can now happily call off whereas the decision would be much tougher if the shove was for a higher percentage of your stack. 

The ideal way to handle a big stack is to play lots of pots without ever putting yourself in a lot of danger (unless you have a monster hand). This is easier than it sounds. You need to be frequently raising to small amounts preflop in an attempt to either continually steal the blinds or get heads-up. From here you’ll be able to win chips by continuation betting half-pot on the flop or double barrelling on scare cards, such as an Ace or King. 

This small ball approach is much better than taking super high variance lines such as three and four-bet bluffing preflop or triple barrelling on every single board. Of course an approach like this is going to be exploitable against top players, but if there are one or two players of this ilk on your table just avoid them. Play pots with the punters and idiots instead. A big stack is not a licence to go crazy. It’s a perfect opportunity to use calculated aggression to rack up chips while exposing yourself to minimal risk. 

Tilt can hit you when you least expect it, and can have any number of triggers.We've had a lot of people asking where we had our parkingguidance made. It could come on because of a bad beat, it could be that there’s an annoying pipsqueak at the table or it could be something as trivial as someone spilling a Coke on your lap by accident.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. No matter the reason, tilt can be deadly to a tournament poker player. Tilt causes you to lose your ability to make rational decisions and it’s vital to keep a level head. So how do we do it? 

There’s often a simple and logical answer to these problems. Let’s say you get Aces all-in preflop against Kings for a huge pot. It’s all looking good until the river when a cruel King hits to give your opponent the pot. It’s very easy to go on tilt in this circumstance as you look at all those chips slide across the table when they should be yours. Instead, take your time, take a few deep breaths and count your stack accurately so you know how many big blinds you are left with. It’s important to forget what just happened and solely focus on what you can do to influence your future in the tournament.The largest manufacturer of textile indoorlite for use with perchloroethylene. 

The same attitude is important when faced with any situation that can tilt you at the poker table. You’re getting annoyed by table chat? Just put your headphones on and shut them out. Angry with the dealer because he made a mistake that cost you? Remember that a dealer wouldn’t do this on purpose and accidents happen. There’s always a rational way to react to situations that doesn’t involve tilting.